A School for the Study of Bluesand All the Styles it Influenced.

Now Accepting Students for Private Lessons.

Welcome to School of the Blues, a school dedicated to the study of blues and all the styles it influenced. How would you like to study harmonica with the most published author of blues harmonica lesson material in the world... or a bass instructor that's played with Snooky Prior, Otis Rush, Nick Gravenites, Chris Cain and Luther Tucker... or our drum instructor who’s played with Albert King, James Cotton, Robert Lockwood Jr., Pinetop Perkins, Boz Skaggs, Lowell Fulson and Charlie Musslewhite. This is the caliber of instructors at School of the Blues! Our instructors have on average twenty years teaching and performing experience, with most being published authors... all of them hand picked to teach at the school for their playing skills, knowledge of their instrument and ability to teach all levels of private and group instruction.

Instruction is available for: Harmonica, Guitar, Bass, Drums and Improvising on all instruments. School of the Blues accommodates players of all skill levels; from beginning to professional. Weekly, bi-weekly and monthly private lessons are available at our facility in San Jose. One-time lessons are also available for persons that live too far from the school to do weekly lessons. Persons that wish to fly in for a one-time private lesson, contact us and we'll walk you through the process. Please take a moment and look at the instructors' bios, and if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to email our scheduling coordinator Sharon Barrett.

Our Instruction Approach

Since blues and related styles are more improvisational, the way in which we approach instruction is very different than standard "classical" lesson formats. What School of the Blues specializes in is the "whole" musical experience. Heavy emphasis is on placing what you learn into "context."

School of the Blues is built around concepts that maximize the learning process through the way in which we structure our personalized lesson plans all the way to how the rooms were built and set up.

Each and every student has a way in which they learn best. Some people learn better in a more structured written format, and some people learn better in a more auditory (listen and copy) format. Lesson plans are structured around your current needs, your long term goals, and the way in which you learn best. Your instructor will keep a lesson log of what you've covered, what you're currently working on, and where you're going. This helps keep lesson plans and a student's instruction on track.

All of the instructional staff believes that recording each and every lesson is a great way to maximize your retension of lesson material. Each studio is equipped with high-quality digital recorders. This allows you to:

Listen back to any part of the lesson that might be in question.

Play along with instructor examples.

Get more out of each and every lesson because the instructor doesn't need to write down or repeat many times a specific example.

Every other month there's a student jam session. This is where you place what you've been learning into context. This is also where you can meet other students to swap ideas and network with players of other instruments to jam, start duos or bands!

Every year we have a large student concert, held at the Poor House Bistro. This is your chance to get real-world experience working with a band and to show off your hard work to family and friends.

As you can see, much time has been spent in designing a thorough, time-proven instruction approach that's modified to meet the needs of each and every student. If you like our approach, please contact our scheduling coordinator Sharon Barrett to get started.